Just like the first two times we had jumped into a pool of reincarnation, I quickly found myself ejected into the ocean of souls, along with my friends.

Unlike the first two times, when we had used more standard pools, this time I felt as if there was a massive hand holding me and controlling my destination as I drifted through the ocean of souls. It wasn’t anything overly complex - however, anytime the four of us started to get ‘sucked in’ by a compatible body, the massive invisible hand would stop us for a moment, do something with essence that I couldn’t make out, and then pull us along, preventing us from reincarnating in that spot.

I quickly guessed that this invisible hand holding on to us was how the pool of reincarnation controlled where we reincarnated. It had a certain set of requirements for wherever we ended up, and it would scan our destination anytime we were about to reincarnate. If the body we were about to reincarnate into didn’t fit the requirements set up by the pool of reincarnation we were using, the reincarnation process would be canceled and we would move on.

At least, that was my guess about how the whole process worked.

On the third world we were about to reincarnate in, the hand seemed satisfied, so we stopped bouncing from one world to another in the ocean of souls. A few moments later, I felt myself sink into a new body, and then everything went black.

A few moments later, I heard a woman screaming, and something was pushing me.

I tried to get an image of my mother and father, but it was hard to focus on anything. I always forgot how hard it was to focus on my surroundings before my brain developed a bit.

Without even a proper look at my parents, I fell unconscious again.

The next few years were… blurry. Even more blurry than usual. I had a hard time tracking what was happening, although the few times I was awake, I kept seeing slightly moldy wood that was the color of urine.

I also saw a woman sometimes, often wearing very… revealing clothing. And I never saw anyone who seemed likely to be my father….

Around the time I turned 4, my brain finally adapted enough that I was able to fully remain conscious and process my surroundings again.

The first thing I did was check my Status Screen. Getting an idea what my stats were like was the first step to adapting to this life and this dimension. My first status screen, which showed my brain and my body, was mostly standard, but had a small line that concerned me.

Current Vessel: Infant’s Body - born from the parents of your current body, this vessel has no leaks and is truly ‘alive.’ You may check the Stats of this physical vessel in your status screen.

Note - due to the characteristics of a Transmigrator, it is impossible for a physical vessel to ever have Stats BELOW 70 or ABOVE 130 without input from your soul. For more information, please go to Luxcorp for a very cheap consultation on the mechanics of Transmigration and Reincarnation.

Second note - currently suffering from minor malnourishment. If you do not find a way to correct your nutrient deficiency, you may suffer from stat penalties!

Immature Organic Brain: A vastly underdeveloped humanoid brain that has yet to finish maturing. Several parts of your brain are also wired to make Binding and Absorption type spellcasting possible.

Until this brain finishes developing, it will be difficult to think clearly, leading to periods of time where you are ruled by survival instincts. Attempting to perform advanced thinking with an underdeveloped brain may result in severe headaches or loss of consciousness. This will not result in long term harm, but will be extremely unpleasant. To reduce this problem, it is recommended you purchase more Intelligence Stats to speed up the development of future brains.

The line about malnourishment made me nervous. It was the first time I had ever seen it. In my first life, the village had more food than it could realistically use, and in the second life, the town had produced enough mushrooms, fish, and surface products that food wasn’t too hard to come by. Was I born into the middle of a famine or something? Either way, I clearly needed to do something about my food situation.

After that, I turned my attention to the rest of my stats.

Physical

Mental

Essence

Strength: (40+124)

Grade 8

Intelligence: (20+88)

Grade 5

Absorption: (40+82)

Grade 6

Agility: (40+90)

Grade 6

Willpower: (40+99)

Grade 6

Manifestation: (20+77)

Grade 4

Fortitude: (40+78)

Grade 5

Perception: (30+124)

Grade 7

Binding: (20+114)

Grade 6

Alteration: (40+91)

Grade 6

Hmm… my stats weren’t great, but they weren’t terrible. My Physical abilities had clearly benefited from my investment in them - which was thankful, because if I didn’t have a +40 in Fortitude, I would have been struggling with health problems this time. If I was malnourished and had, say, a Grade 3 Fortitude, I wasn’t sure if I would have lived long enough to redevelop my consciousness. Fortitude seemed to at least somewhat help my body stave off the effects of not having enough food, even if it didn’t do anything to totally stave off the effects of malnutrition.

My Strength was Grade 8, which was probably the highest natural stat I had ever had so far. I gripped my toddler hands, and could feel strength ripple through my muscles that did not belong to a 4-year old child.

I grinned, but my grin faded away as I looked at my other stats.

My mental stats were… fine. A bit lower than I would have liked, but at least I had decent Willpower and Perception, even if I really would have appreciated another grade in Intelligence. Sallia’s noodle bowl would hopefully help me boost my stats a bit.

Alteration 6 and Absorption 6 were kind of disappointing, though. I had really hoped that they would at least be grade 7, and I had kind of been hoping to get super lucky and get grade 8 in both. That would have made me an absolute terror in the right world, and would have at the very least given me a huge leg up.

I sighed. Oh well. Not much I could do about it now.

The next prompt, however, was quite interesting.

Congratulations on Successfully Transmigrating!

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Analyzing this world… Analysis complete!

Essences Present in this dimension: Bonded Essence: Binding-Absorption (Binding dominant)

Estimated tier: 2 (according to the Market’s standardized power evaluation scale)

Special notes: There are technically two essences present in this dimension, but the laws of reality governing magic in this world have caused both essences to be stuck together anytime they naturally appear.

The amount of binding essence in this dimension is overwhelmingly high compared to the amount of absorption essence. Expect Binding Essence to be largely dominant in this world.

Huh. I had no idea what a ‘bonded essence’ meant for me in practical terms, but I would figure it out later.

On the bright side, the pool of reincarnation had properly found us a dimension where binding essence existed. And the dimension was only Tier 2, meaning that we shouldn’t run into anything outrageous like another dragon or the living universe that had killed us last life. I didn’t see any special notes about this dimension being linked to another one, so hopefully, there wouldn’t be too many crazy wildcards in this world. A Tier 2 world where we could work on growing and improving sounded like exactly what we needed right now. With any luck, maybe we could really become amazing people this time.

After that, I tried to look around, to see if I could spot either of my parents and get a better grasp on my family’s situation.

Just as I had already noticed, we seemed to live in a very tiny home. I could see that I was placed in some kind of crib, and it wasn’t very sturdy. There were little chunks of wood missing from the sides of the crib, and the pieces of wood surrounding me looked a bit rotten.

I wondered if it was normal to put a four year old in a baby crib in this world.

I looked at the ceiling, and I spotted little flecks of mold growing in the corners of the room. Just as I remembered. And the walls were an unappealing piss-yellow color, with flaking paint and no decorations to them.

I winced.

We clearly weren’t very wealthy in this life. And my parents didn’t seem to care much about sanitation either.

I also couldn’t see my mother or father around. Odd.

I was also rather hungry. My stomach was rumbling and making its presence known.

I was starting to get slightly uneasy feelings about my surroundings in this life.

I glanced at my items list again, trying to see if I had brought along any food from the Market, and after a few moments realized that I had nearly forgotten something.

My friendship bracelet would let me contact my friends.

This was definitely something I wanted to take advantage of. I wondered if everyone else had already regained control of their body or not. Since Intelligence stats apparently affected how quickly our brain was able to adapt to our souls, I might even be slower than everyone else. I took one last look at the moldy, decaying house around me, and after confirming my parents weren’t near me, I materialized my friendship bracelet and connected with my friends.

It only took a few moments before I felt my friendship bracelet latch on to three other connections.

Hello I thought, trying to focus on projecting my thoughts into my bracelet. I felt my thoughts get sent… somewhere else.

Oh, Miria! You’re awake! thought Anise, a few moments later. Glad that you finally woke up

I felt a wave of relief wash over me. I could talk with my friends and get a better handle on my situation, and theirs!

I also realized that there had been no need at all to use pen and paper to communicate in the Market, after my throat had been ruined. We probably should have experimented with the friendship bracelets more after getting them. I suddenly felt a bit silly, but tried not to let that distract me.

Anise! What’s going on? How are all of you? I sent into the telepathic call.

For me, not much, she sent. But Felix is in a rough spot, and Sallia apparently lives in a pretty bad neighborhood. My family is pretty average. You’re the last one to wake up.

I am? I asked. How long has everyone else been awake?

Sallia woke up first, and Felix and I woke up around the same time, although Felix was a little bit faster, said Anise. But the difference was only a few months. How does your situation look? Both as far as stats go, and as far as family situation goes?”

I checked my Status Screen again. “Grade 5 Intelligence. Not too bad, but I do wish it was a bit higher,” I said. Everyone else has better intelligence?

Yeah, Felix and I have grade 6, and Sallia is at grade 7, said Anise. We were just talking about-

Ah! Miria! Came a new stream of thoughts. This one felt distinctly… Sallia -esque. Glad that you’re with us!

Yeah, I hear I’m the last one to wake up? I said. How are things looking on your end?

Well, my family is living in the slums, and they’re… okay, Sallia said, and even though our conversation was entirely telepathic, I could feel a hint of hesitation in her mental voice. They’re quite busy. My father is a factory worker near the bottom of the totem pole, and he seems to have lost an arm a few years before I was born. It’s very lucky that I have the noodle bowl,” said Sallia. “And I can sometimes hear gunshots outside of the window.”

Gunshots? I said. This world has gunpowder?

Ah, Miria! came Felix’s voice, distracting me from the revelation that this world had guns. All four of us were now in the group call! Good to hear from you again. I… hate to ask so suddenly, but whenever you’re ready, and if you’re able to help I would appreciate some assistance.

What’s wrong? I said, all thoughts of gunpowder tossed out of my mind. If one of my friends needed help, that was definitely priority number one. Everything else came afterwards.

Well… I’ve discovered something quite surprising, said Felix. It seems that any brain that is suitably alive and able to contain our souls is something we can reincarnate into. Normally, I wouldn’t think much of that fact, but… I seem to have reincarnated into one of this world’s first attempts at creating an artificial baby ever. I am a test subject, he said. And it is rather… problematic. I’m not quite sure where I am, but I’m definitely underground somewhere. I would appreciate a rescue when you guys can manage it. I don’t think I can escape on my own.” He paused. And if possible, swiping all of the stuff the researchers used to create me would be great. I’m certain that my creation process involved a lot of interesting usage of binding essence, and I am fascinated by it. Even though it’s putting me in a rather bad position right now.

I frowned, and then nodded.

Rescuing Felix from an unknown underground facility would be… difficult. But there was no way I would just let a bunch of researchers experiment on Felix, either.

Still, gunpowder and artificial babies… what kind of world were we living in?

What’s the tech level for this world like? What kind of resistance should we expect during a rescue attempt? I asked. The first world that we had reincarnated into had been barely out of the stone age, and the second world had definitely been stuck in the iron age, with a couple bits of future tech mixed in from the second Orthan empire. But it didn’t sound like any modern technology in this world was part of some long-distant empire - it sounded like it was firmly in use at this very moment.

This world seems to be somewhere between your origin world’s technology level and my origin world’s technology level, said Felix. A few decades ago, somebody invented something they call ‘the steam engine,’ according to what Anise has been able to overhear. Her father works in a factory run by machines. Lots of factories are springing up in the world, and gunpowder has outclassed all cold weapons. But I’m not sure how that fits into the overall technology of the world - the fact that the inhabitants of the world were able to create an artificial baby makes me think that some aspects of magitech may be way more advanced than expected.

Also, swords are useless in this world, said Sallia, after a few moments of hesitation. I could detect a vehement bitterness in Sallia’s words as she sent her thoughts into the conversation. Everyone uses guns now.

I blinked. How would we handle gunpowder? I had been mostly thinking in terms of swords and melee weapons so far, but gunpowder introduced an element of danger I hadn’t considered in the past. I was pretty sure it was possible to reach a point where we were bulletproof if we got the right abilities or a high enough Fortitude stat - but I was also sure we weren’t at that point yet. Nowhere close. Even though this was just a Tier 2 world, the inhabitants of this world could hurt us really badly if they shot us with a gun.

But we also needed to rescue Felix as soon as possible. I wasn’t leaving my friend in a dangerous situation. The moment we could rescue him successfully, we were going to get him somewhere safe.

Before I had time to think more about the implications of all of this, I heard the front door to the house open, and I heard a woman’s voice. Even though I had never been fully aware before now, I instinctively realized that my mother was talking.

Sorry, lemme focus on my end again, I said, exiting the conversation with my friends for the moment.

It was time to figure out what my family situation was like in this world.